Cal Poly Baseball utilized a seven-run eighth inning to fuel a late comeback against Pepperdine University, snapping a 5-5 tie to win 12-5 on Tuesday, April 6.
The Mustangs (32-15, 18-6 Big West) swept the two-game season series against the Waves (11-37) for the second straight year, bolstering their winning streak against Pepperdine to four consecutive games. Cal Poly has won three of those four matches by a margin of five or more runs.
With the final games of the season approaching, the Mustangs will look to establish themselves as among the top-five teams in their conference to secure a spot in the Big West Tournament, an event revived after a 27-year-long hiatus, where the winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
The game against the Waves had been a slugfest, with the opposing sides combining for 26 total hits throughout the nine-inning venture. Of the 26 total hits, eight had been worth extra bases, seven of which were notched for doubles.
Of the 10 players Cal Poly fielded, eight recorded a hit and five racked up multi-hit games.
Freshman shortstop Nate Castellon, the reigning Big West Field Player of the Week, led the Mustangs’ offensive charge with his seventh career three-hit game and sixth multi-hit game in his last eight. Castellon leads the team in batting average, hitting .365 on the season.
The rest of the infielders pitched in on the multi-hit ceremony, with senior first baseman Zach Daudet, freshman second baseman Jake Downing and sophomore third baseman Alejandro Garza all contributing two hits in the offensive attack.
Downing was not a starter and replaced redshirt senior infielder Ryan Fenn at second base in the fourth inning. Fenn was taken out for precautionary reasons.
Senior center fielder Casey Murray Jr. also added two hits to the team’s total.
Pepperdine had begun the game firing on all cylinders, knocking seven singles throughout the first three frames to score an easy four runs. Cal Poly, in the same timespan, recorded three singles to chalk up an individual run.
The scoreboard on both sides remained relatively quiet for the next third of the game but the scoring opportunities were present.
Pepperdine loaded the bases with two outs to give in the top of the fifth inning but sophomore reliever Chris Downs entered the game and whiffed two consecutive batters to prevent any of the Waves from crossing home plate.
In the latter half of the same inning, the Mustangs had an opportunity to deal damage. Cal Poly cut the lead in half to make it a 4-2 ballgame. The Mustangs, however, were limited to that individual run, recording three consecutive outs to strand runners on second and third.
Pepperdine responded the following inning, recording two hits, a double and a single, to put their runners in scoring position before taking advantage of a wild pitch to send a runner home for their fifth score of the evening.
Cal Poly would notch two hits in the sixth inning, relying primarily on heads-up baserunning and out-of-control pitching from Pepperdine to wave three runners across home plate, tying the game at five apiece.
The Mustangs’ true scoring abilities were awakened in the rear end of the eighth frame. Cal Poly sent 12 batters to the plate and flipped the game on its head, making use of three singles, four walks, a hit batter and a sacrifice bunt into a seven-run frenzy, ending the inning with a 12-5 lead.
The Waves utilized four pitchers in the bottom of the eighth inning alone, a number that made up almost half of the nine total pitchers they had sent out to the mound the entire game.
The momentum had shifted to the Mustangs in the final inning, allowing Cal Poly and senior reliever Jake Torres to retire the side in order and end the game.
Cal Poly will embark on their final road trip of the season in which the Mustangs will begin a series against CSU Northridge on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Matador Field.